: This post was initally a response to a single sentence from Dark One's post
: here , but it seemed far too much of a tangent to post there. The
: question, "What can she gain from the Flood?" triggered it, as
: the same question has been bouncing around my head since November 10th.
: This is the picture the echoes have formed. Forgive the length.

: I've given thought to the "Gravemind is an old Forerunner AI"
: theory owing to his control over Halo's subsystems, and, as a result, he
: is of great interest to Cortana. She's nearing the end of her life,
: especially if you believe that her imminent demise has been hastened by
: the influx of information from the Alpha Halo.

: So, how to preserve herself? I think "reversal" of the process that
: intially created her. So, instead of a brain being used as a template from
: which she is created, she is looking to make a flash transfer of her
: thinking self, her consciousness to a fleshly vessel so as to avoid the
: computing issues that would eventually kill her. Her data could still be
: accessed via electronic storage (or quantum, or however they store
: information), or it could even be contained within some bloated, organic,
: brainlike organ.

If that's the case, a different bit of
: software might use the highly malleable, adaptible hardware that is the
: human brain in a vastly different way. Cortana could very well use raw,
: organic material to create a fleshly vessel for herself to inhabit and
: control. Her old digitized self would be dead and gone, or course, leaving
: only the bio-Cortana. However, in every logical and meaningful sense, it
: would be her. Her biggest difficulty as an organic AI would be
: interfacing with those mechanical things on which she previously relied,
: but I assume she's still working out all the kinks in her plan (just as
: I'm working out all the kinks in this idea).

: The big question is, would such a smart AI running on organic hardware still
: succumb to the same issues as her contemporaries? On this point I admit
: I'm fairly ambivalent, seeing as I can argue both sides to myself at the
: drop of a hat. However, if we believe that Cortana has already succumbed
: somewhat to the madness within, then the logical viability of a fleshly
: incarnation is really a moot point, because her Rampancy (however partial)
: could very well cause her to ignore such self-doubtings.

: I admit there are several instances of the word "could" in there,
: not to mention several assumptions, and likely many other holes; and I
: know the idea could possibly use some more fleshing out before it can be
: taken seriously.
: -Usul
: est. 1986

This line comes from the Cortana letters: "I straddle the thin line between Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side I'm on?"

Cortana would be able to get a vast and potentially unlimited growth medium if she was able to share Gravemind's body, thanks to his vast brainspace and his ability to add more matter at any time by assimilating other beings plus their knowledge.

Dark One talked about the creation of the Zerg and the Protoss in Starcraft. What he neglected to mention was the method of their creator's demise. The Zerg Overmind's consciousness stretched out from the Zerg swarms on the surface of their homeworld Zerus and into space, making him touchy about the presence Xel'Naga starships that orbited the planet. So, he severed his psychic link to them and used his evolved spacefaring Zerg swarms to ruthlessly pummel the starships into oblivion.

Cortana can transfer herself from one suitable medium to another, but Gravemind might be able to reach out and keep his consciousness in any medium. That's a scary thought-if a part of his mind can exist in anything, undetected, then the whole ring and the surrounding space could be nothing but extensions of Gravemind's mind, and all the lesser flood organisms would be his limbs(weak minds of their won, following instructions from his higher form), and he'd know a lot about what people were thinking, or doing, on the ring.

Where Gravemind's conscious self goes, the flood go too. There might have been a Gravemind on Alpha Halo, part of which might have survived the destruction of the ring and still controlled the flood on the gas giant installation. It would aslo explain the creation of the KEyes blob, and stockpiling the dead bodies in the eponymous level. The Gravemind of Halo 04 had no way to escape, so the only alternative was to create a new Gravemind to do the job of conquest.

Forgive me if I've gone too far off into my own theories as usual...but what you say is definitely a great idea.